Beaver attacks, kills fisherman in Belarus
OSTROMECHEVO, Belarus – The fisherman wanted his photo shot with a beaver. The beaver had other ideas: It attacked the 60-year-old man with razor-sharp teeth, slicing an artery and causing him to bleed to death.
It was the most serious in a string of beaver attacks on humans in Belarus, as the rodents have turned increasingly aggressive when confronted by humans after wandering near homes, shops and schools.
“The character of the wound was totally shocking for us medical professionals,” said village doctor Leonty Sulim.
Once hunted nearly to extinction in Europe, beavers have made a comeback as hunting was banned or restricted and new populations were introduced. In Belarus, a former Soviet nation between Russia and Poland, the beaver population has tripled in the past decade to an estimated 80,000, according to wildlife experts. That has caused beavers increasingly to wander into populated areas, creating more grounds for conflict.
Ants jam bell, keep German woman awake
BERLIN – Disturbing the peace in a provincial German town: a colony of ants.
A 75-year-woman in the southwestern town of Offenburg called police at 3 a.m. Wednesday complaining that she couldn’t sleep because her doorbell was always ringing.
Police said officers dispatched to investigate the cause quickly tracked down the culprit: an ant nest next to the doorbell. They say the insects had built such a big home that the nest pressed the switching elements together, keeping the bell ringing.
Officers silenced it by removing the nest with a knife.
60th anniversary: Nepal marks Everest conquest
KATMANDU, Nepal – Nepal has celebrated the 60th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest and is honoring climbers who followed the footsteps of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Among them is Italian Reinhold Messner who was the first climber to scale Everest without using bottled oxygen and the first person to climb all the 14 highest peaks in the world.
Nepalese officials were taken around the city on horse-drawn chariots followed by people who marched holding banners to mark the anniversary.
Hillary and Norgay reached the Everest summit on May 29, 1953. Their relatives were also honored at Wednesday’s ceremony.
Canada bans nearly all Iranian imports
TORONTO – Canada is banning nearly all exports to and imports from Iran.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Wednesday that Canada has grave concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. Canada also adding 30 individuals and 82 entities to an economic blacklist.
Baird says Iran has produced nothing but “false promises and empty gestures” about its nuclear program.
The U.S., Canada and their allies fear Iran is moving toward development of a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any interest in nuclear arms.
Associated Press
